Corona Changed the World. Let’s Change the Way We Work.
The Remote Work Revolution as response to crisis
At Troubador we love nontraditional living. When we were told “you’ll never work a day in our life if you do what you love,” we took it to heart. For the first time ever many careers and jobs can be done from home thanks to technological advancements. If you can work from home, you can work anywhere: so long as you have an internet connection. We believe Troubadors should wander, and this is the age of the digital nomad. The issue is this: not enough employers have valued remote working as we have, and the consequences have been heavy.
You may have heard, but a virus has caused the global economy to come to a sudden stop. ‘Non-essential’ businesses are being mandated to close and employees are forced to work from home, if they can. Coronavirus has also created an opportunity -out of necessity- for employers to try and experiment with remote work to try and keep their businesses afloat, their employees healthy.
Today, Kansas City has mandated that we stay home for who knows how long.
When Dom and I planned to create a business, this wasn’t exactly how we envisioned our company’s inaugural month to go. We had expected to hit the ground running. We worked tirelessly for months crafting the branding for Troubador with the idea that we were going to attend networking events around Kansas City and spread our name. We certainly didn’t anticipate that it would become both dangerous and taboo to shake hands, let alone gather.
I previously worked part time at a non-remote print, signage, and specialty shop on 39th Street. They are a non-essential business that is defying the mandate to close their doors because they can’t afford the costs. They intend to cut everyone’s hours in half and committing to continued improvement projects, if they don’t retain business while other companies and businesses are shut down, limiting their expenses, and working remotely.
Corona has changed how we work.
Never before have employers been forced to work remotely like this, but now many businesses are discovering the benefits of providing employees the flexibility to work from home. Some have opted to shift schedules to compensate for social distancing as best they can manage. Across the nation ‘stay at home orders’ are ringing loud which means non-essential businesses like my former employer are being required to close shop. Many don’t have the systems in place to make this possible, as they rely on paper order forms rather than digital systems. Each year my former employer has lost business to online competitors because of their hesitance to embrace industry standard digital practices. Most of their business simply can’t be done from home though, and many businesses share this problem. Many of those businesses will be forced to lay off employees or declare bankruptcy during this crisis, the companies which can embrace remote work and sustain their business when employees are forced to work from home will stand a chance. Troubador will not be shutting its doors because of Coronavirus; I doubt I could say the same of my former employer.
We need to continue working from home after this crisis.
Remote work benefits employees, employers, and the health of our planet. The statistics back it up. Employees are happier and report better work and life balance. They have more time to work out and stay in shape. They save time and money associated with commutes, car maintenance, often unhealthy work lunches, wardrobe, and parking fees. A telecommuting population reduces greenhouse gas emissions and possess greater flexibility to support personal efforts to lower their ecological footprint.
This benefits employers too. Happy employees don’t leave as often and are more loyal to their company. Remote and flexible work schedules are more appealing to talent, and more potentially wide reaching than those limited by acceptable commute times. Employers save money on office space by relying on remote workers and can save money in other office related costs like hardware, utility bills and other amenities. In times of crisis they can keep their metaphorical doors open when their physical ones must close.
Let’s build a better world!
It’s hard to imagine the world returning to normal right now, but hopefully the future provides us with good news. When the world no longer has to worry about COVID-19, we shouldn’t abandon the progress we made in the digital work world. Remote working has far reaching implications that will potentially change the fabric of society. Sitting in traffic in your morning commute may be a thing of the past. Sleep in or rise early in the morning, go to the gym or the grocery store and save your work for the evening. Travel to foreign places and squeeze your work into vacations so every day can feel more like a vacation and less like a means to an end. We can all be happier and enjoy more freedom, after all, the choice is up to you. As employees we should not let this opportunity be forgotten. We need not be shackled to brick and mortar locations until we retire and decide to live life. Coronavirus reminds us how fragile life can be, so let’s spend our lives on our own terms.
If you like what we do here, consider supporting us.
Our store is the simplest and cheapest way to support us. But we also offer design, illustration and copywriting services if it makes sense for your business. (We would especially like to help small businesses during this time)